Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar
Entering the worlds catalogued in Taryn Simon’s new book An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar is like stepping into a curiosity shop. A place where reality really is stranger than fiction. Over four years, Simon scoured the United States for the obscure to be found within its borders. And through her meticulous documentation across the realms of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion she brings to light evidence of a quirky and, at times, unsettling cultural identity post 9/11.
The book is just larger than A4 and clothbound in slate grey framing an ink black panel in which the title and her name are embossed in gold capital letters. The foreword by Salman Rushdie is eloquent and well-observed and the introduction by Elizabeth Sussman and Tina Kukielski is informative. An American Index is quite a package, is thoroughly researched and sets the benchmark high for early books. Many young photographers’ work would not be able to stand so firm alongside Rushdie’s writing, however, Simon at 32, rises to the challenge.
An American Index comprises of 62 annotated photographs and the eclectic running order of images suggests a certain chaos and avoids the artifical imposition of categories. The first photograph Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility shows nuclear waste capsules submerged in water emitting an eerie neon-blue glow. It is an abstract expressionistic image, seductive but also disquieting, and creates a palpable tension which is evident in much of Simon’s work – especially as it happens to resemble a map of the United States of America.
As the book progresses, photographs such as Hymenoplasty, Standardized Patient, and Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory focus on the scientific domain while the Imperial Office of the World Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, The Helen Keller National Centre for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults, and the Church of Scientology, Screening Room unveil organizations with specific agendas, some of which are benign, others downright scary.
An American Index is also the lead exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery (in collaboration with the Museum fr Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main) where 26 large colour prints are on display in frames without glass. Alongside each print, the accompanying caption is unimposing and the style sober - almost clinical - and, in the gallery setting, is rendered directly onto the surface of the wall.
In both the show and the book, Simon takes the audience on a journey to microcosms; a voyage into space with NGC 281, The Pacman Nebula, and Lucasfilm Archives, Death Star II, on land in Fireworks by Gucci and Avalanche Control, and into water with Great White Shark in Captivity. Illustrating the complexities of national identity at a specific time in a specific place, the description by Sussman and Kukielski of the body of work as a time capsule, rather than an archive, is apt.
Operating a large-format 5x4 camera, whenever conditions permitted, and with demanding lighting requirements, Simon’s photographs are expertly executed and imbued with atmosphere; a gentle stillness pervades each image which is heightened by the formal style. This is a rare breed of photography - a curious hybrid of art and documentary where both image and text are vital and the balance between the two is tightly maintained.
Highlights include Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, Decomposing Corpse where the golden hues lift the main subject out of swathes of darkness and the nucleur waste capsules mentioned earlier. Cryopreservation Unit, on the other hand, is a whiter shade of pale – a beautiful, ethereal, milky photograph. Slipping easily from photographing interiors and details to portraiture, Simon rarely misses a beat and her photograph Death Row Outdoor Recreational Facility, ‘The Cage’ is also compelling. The choice to include a final blank page, with just an excerpt from a Disney Publishing Worldwide fax denying Simon access to its inner sanctum, leaves the reader intrigued.
Simon’s previous projects include The Innocents, for which she produced portraits of people in the United States, who had been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, and investigated photography's role in that process. With An American Index Simon continues to delve in her own backyard to offer up facets of its persona for contemplation by her compatriots, as well as outsiders, while avoiding didacticism. Aesthetics are not sacrificed at the altar of the moral or political, instead, their coexistence is what gives the work its strength.
An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar is a tremendous body of work and example of the ability of annotated photographs to both engage and inform a wider public. In gaining access to places few of us have even heard of, let alone seen, Simon mines the little explored seams of America and returns with evidence of the complexity of the human condition. Take a peek as soon as you can.
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